Painful Bone Lengthening Procedure Can Make You Taller

A 5'1" Long Island man is in the midst of a four month long medical procedure which, come May, will leave him four inches taller—and his insurance company is paying for it! 20-year-old cancer survivor Lenny Roth is getting the limb-lengthening procedure performed on his legs by orthopedist Dr. Robert Rozbruch, who made cuts midway in each of his thigh bones in February and anchored two rods to each leg. Every day Roth turns external nuts that make the rods lengthen 1 millimeter. (Then he takes lots of Percocet.) It's called the Ilizarov Method, and it was developed during WWII by a Siberian doctor who wanted to help injured veterans. According to Newsday, thousands of people get the procedure done every year; it normally costs up to $100,000, but Roth's insurance company is picking up the tab because it's also going to correct his bow legs. When he's finally done turning the nuts, the University of Connecticut accounting major expects to be 5'5", and no longer "the shortest person I know."

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By John Del Signore in News on April 20, 2009 12:37 PM

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Comments [rss]

beer glasses

Next he'll have his penis lengthened

jtj74

This reminds me of 'Gattaca'.

VanessaNYC

I'm at 5'5" woman, but if I were a 5'1" man I'd get this done too (but I'm pretty vain).

JenChungsBaby

I'm guessing this wouldn't work on other non-bone-containing body parts. But yikes -- a full millimeter every day? I remember getting my braces tightened and I couldn't chew for a week.

Snoopy

"I'm guessing this wouldn't work on other non-bone-containing body parts." Do you mean those pill ads in the back of magazines don't really work?

Why do they call them "boners' then?

mercuryjv

Details Mag did an extensive article on this a few months ago.

breaknight

Holy! Fucking! Shit! I'm thinking much my teeth hurt back when I had braces and they'd tighten them...this has to be that x 100. I cannot even imagine...

ANGRYGOD11

Let's all mock this cancer victim because we are all so good at seeing the inner beauty.

Snoopy

What are you talking about and how does this have to relate to being a cancer survivor?

If this procedure "normally costs $100,000" what is the cost if the insurance company picks up the costs? $200,000?

Why is he stopping at 5'5"? For an extra $300,000 he could be 6'5".

EricRoberts

Nope, it costs $35,000. Have you ever seen the invoice after your claim has been paid by insurance?

It's like Billed amount: $500, Covered amount: $250, Amount you owe: $0.

That's part of the catch-22 about being uninsured - you actually pay more than insured people for the same procedure..

ANGRYGOD11

He needs this to correct bow legs caused by cancer. There's no way health insurance covers these costly procedures without a extreme medical justification.

It's not an elective vanity project.

Politburo

Where did it say his condition is caused by cancer?

His cancer was in a salivary gland.

The article says his condition is genetic.

ANGRYGOD11

Roth knows exactly why nature denied him height. A miscue indelibly scripted in his DNA led to a rare genetic bone disorder known as metaphyseal dysplasia Schmidt type

I stand corrected. It wasn't cancer, but a genetic bone disorder.